Aasra Suicide Prevention.This blog is about getting people to talk about their innermost feelings and emotions in times of distress and despair.All discussions are about the issue of suicide, mental health and it's effect on society.
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Suicide is number one cause of death among young women in India

Suicide is number one cause of death among young women in India

Self harm has replaced maternal disorders as the leading cause
of death among women aged between 15 and 49 in India, a study
covering 187 nations has revealed.

Analysis of the University of Washington's Institute for
Health Metrics and Evaluation report was published
in the British Medical Journal on 26
March, and covers data recorded between 1990 and 2010. It
reveals a 126 percent rise in suicides among young women across
that period. The shocking statistics support a growing body of
evidence that indicate it's an increasing problem in the
country.

Last year a Lancet
study estimated there were 187,000 suicides in India among
over 15s in 2010, or three percent of all deaths recorded that
year. It represented a more than 50,000 increase on official National
Crime Records Bureau figures, attributed to under-reporting of
cause of death possibly due to social concerns over what remains a
taboo subject. Compare this with the 5,608 suicides that occurred
in over 15s in the UK in 2010. India's population is nearly 20
times that of the UK's, meaning equivalent figures would set Indian
suicides at about 112,000 -- 75,000 less than the Lancet
article's estimates.
According to the study, 40 percent of those suicides among men
and 56 percent among women occurred between the ages of 15 and 29,
and rates were higher among well-educated young people in wealthier
areas, suggesting economic strife is not the overriding cause
behind the increase. This may instead correlate to social pressures
surrounding issues of marriage at that time in life.
According to the World Health Organisation, suicide is the
seventh top cause of death globally among women aged 20-59 years.
Top causes of death in the UK are attributed to circulatory and
respiratory disease, and cancers. By comparison, the top causes of
death among women in India are maternal disorders (child birth and
pregnancy), tuberculosis, diarrhoea and, troublingly, fire. Death
caused from HIV and Aids rose by 1,000 percent, and from
68th to 6th position.
But how can the government even begin to tackle such a
staggering problem? The Lancet report called on public
health authorities to limit access to harmful substances such as
pesticides -- half of all the suicides were by poisoning. This
could combat a growing number of suicides among farmers, which has
been on the rise since the 90s due to a number of socioeconomic
factors squeezing the sector. 14,000 committed suicide in 2011,
according to government figures, and the agriculture ministry
responded by saying it would increase investment in the sector and
raise minimum crop prices.
The escalating issue of sexual discrimination and the consequent
violence towards women may also be a contributory factor. In
response, the country's parliament has just passed
a new law to offer more protection for women and harsher
penalties for their attackers. A sign of the kind of social taboo
surrounding the issue was made clear with an inclusion in the law
to make it a crime for police to refuse to open a case based on
complaints by women about sexual attacks. "The main social
determinants for suicide in women are interpersonal violence (for
example, marital violence) and economic difficulties," Vikram
Patel, Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science
and coauthor on the Lancet study, told Wired.co.uk.
In India, as in most place across the globe, mental health
remains a taboo issue.
Another report published 26 March by the Royal College of
Psychiatrists called for equal levels of access to treatment to
become the norm for both mental and physical illness. According to
the study, just 24 percent of people with mental disorders and 28
percent with post-traumatic stress disorder get treatment, compared
to 91 percent of people with high blood pressure. This is despite
mental health disorders shortening life expectancy by an average of
15 to 20 years. The number of deaths caused by mental or
behavioural problems also
increased by 10.52 percent from 2009 to 2010, according to the
NHS.
The stats speak for themselves -- treating mental illness as a
taboo subject, of less importance than something we can physically
see or measure, is no longer an option. Providing those in need
with a support network that can be easily accessed is essential,
and we are seeing more of this in India. In 2011 Facebook set up a
system whereby friends can alert the relevant authorities if they
think a friend on the social network is contemplating suicide. By
linking them up with the Aasra suicide prevention
helpline, they might be helping prevent a handful of deaths.
Changing the social, cultural and economic factors that contribute
to the growing pressure on young people, pushing them to
contemplate taking their own lives, will not be quite so
simple.